Apple Reaches Value of Entire 1977 Market

We told you before that, when it comes the late Steve Jobs’ growing powerhouse of a company, we’re talking about one verybig Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL[1]).

Since January alone, the stock has seen gains of more than 70% and its resulting giant market cap made it the highest-valued company in U.S. history[2].

Not too shabby. Now, on the heels of the company’s iPhone 5 announcement[3], the buzz just keeps on coming. AAPL’s gains today sent shares up to a new all-time high of $696.98.

That’s a lot of coin — and a whole lotta value. In fact, Howard Silverblatt of the S&P Dow Jones Index says[4] that it’s actually more than the entire S&P 500 was worth back in 1977:

Apple is trading at a new high of $695 per share (old high was $685.50), with a total market value of $651.5 billion. When I started at S&P in May of 1977 the entire market value of the S&P 500 was $623 billion (T was #1 with $38B, then IBM, XON, GM and GE — EK was #6 and S, which was Sears, was #7). It was not until August of 1978 that the index reached the $650 mark (when IBM was #1 with $43B, then T, XON, GM, GE, EK at #6, with S down to #9) — now, 34 years later, one company is $650 billion. So in October of 2046 will some issue be worth $13.9 trillion? FYI — the Aug,1978 to Sep,2012 full market value growth calculates to a 9.3% annualized rate (I have an app that calculates it – it called a hp12c, circa 1981, when T was back to being #1 in market value).